Acupuncture patient left pinned, locked in Texas clinic

Texas authorities didn’t have any trouble “pinpointing” who was to blame.

A Texas acupuncture patient was forced to phone 911 earlier this month when the doctor left for the day – while the patient was still in a treatment room, with needles in her, WFAA Channel 8 reported.

“Yes, I'm locked in someone's business establishment,” the unidentified woman told the 911 operator. “I don’t hear anybody. The music went off. The door is locked and his car is gone.”

"Are you a patient?" the flabbergasted operator reportedly asked.

"Yes,” the woman replied, according to WFAA. “I was in the middle of a treatment… I had to pull the needles out of me in order to, you know, find out what's going on. I'm yelling for help for about five minutes or so."

The station reports the incident occurred about 6 p.m., Aug. 5 at the Hwa Tow Acupuncture and Chinese Herbs Clinic in Arlington.

The doctor -- Jeff Tsing, who is licensed with the Texas Medical Board and has a spotless record -- later told WFAA he was ashamed of what had occurred and “baffled” how he had inexplicably forgotten a patient was still in his care when he left.

Police arrived after about 10 minutes, and the entrapped patient was reportedly freed by a worker at another business, which shares the same building as the acupuncture clinic.